NYC Principal Allegedly Calls Black Teachers ‘Gorillas’

Minerva Zanca, principal of the Elmhurst, New York-based Pan-American International High School, is reportedly being accused of referring to a number of African-American teachers at her high school as “gorillas” that have “big lips and nappy hair.” Now Zanca’s alleged racially charged comments have raised the ire of school personnel and activists, who descended upon the N.Y.C. Department of Education on Monday to protest Zanca’s abusive language and unfair firings, demanding an immediate and unbiased investigation of the allegations, according to the Huffington Post.

The school’s assistant principal, Anthony Riccardo, reportedly filed an affidavit against Zanca containing the alleged charges. In the document, the educator accuses Zanca of spewing the racial slurs at Black employees after classroom-observation conferences this past year, which he claims were done privately but uttered loud enough so that he could actually hear.

Riccardo, who claims that Zanca attempted to fire him after he filed the affidavit against her, says that his colleague commented about one teacher saying she “looked like a gorilla in a sweater.” The educator then said that Zanca allegedly made a snide racist comment about another teacher’s hair, calling it “nappy,” then stating, “I could never have hair like that.”

Reportedly, Pan-American only had three African-American educators and now none of them are teaching at the high school.

Zanca reportedly called two of the teachers, John Flanagan and Heather Hightower, “poor performers.” Flanagan, who alleges that he has never received a bad rating in all of his teaching career, was baffled by Zanca’s assessment of his duties.

“For the past four years, I’ve gotten satisfactory ratings from the founding principal, and when she resigned, Minerva Zanca came on board, and basically targeted me from the very beginning and removed me from the school,” Flanagan said, according to CBS New York.

In the filed affidavit, Riccardo stated that Zanca asked him after a meeting with Flanagan, “Did you see his big lips quivering?”

Meanwhile, Hightower was so turned off from her experience at Pan American that she has decided to stop teaching, “I’m leaving teaching altogether, knowing that this system is in place, and knowing that no matter what I do, someone can still fire me for something I can’t change, is very disappointing,” she told CBS.

Hightower and Flanagan have since filed a complaint with the DOE’s Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO).

According to the third teacher, Lisa-Erica James, who was tenured, she submitted her resignation because Zanca eliminated the theater program she oversaw, “We’re the only African-American teachers and all three of us have left — which means there is no African-American teachers at the school when over half the population of the students look like us,” James said.

The growing outcry over Zanca’s antics have also led to an online petition at Change.org, which has thus far garnered nearly 1,200 signatures demanding the educator’s ouster and is sponsored by BK Nation and joined by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators, the social justice caucus within the UFT; the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE); and the International Socialist Organization.

According to the New York Board of Education, Zanca has a clean record with no prior complaints lodged against her.

24. Me & Vanessa Williams giving #DuckLips #Pose on the set of #DaytimeDivas @vh1 - Coming Soon to a tv near you. Lol. - My make up done by @makeupsurgeon

Source:Instagram
24 of 30

25. This picture just makes me wanna praise the Lord, you hear me!!!!!! Yes Lord brotha #TEDDYCAMPBELL What a #man !!! You are everything right on this picture husband ......... #gorgeous #stylish #classy #strong #masculine #king #sexy #debonair #gentlemenstyle And that #bible in your hand just seals the deal for me (probably cause i know that, that is what helped you become just as amazing as you look😘). While my heart and mind experiences the goodness of God at #church on Sundays, my eyes experiences the goodness of Teddy😍. Amen somebody🙌🏽. "Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name" #myman #myhusband #goodman #blackman #dapperman #godlyman #goodfather #mybestfriend

Source:Instagram
25 of 30

26. Yesterday was my mama's 53rd birthday!!!!! Got to celebrate with her all day. If this is what I have to look forward to I can't wait. Looking like a soft bucket a cocoa butter. Yaaaaaaaaaas! 😍😍😍 love you mommy!

Source:Instagram
26 of 30

27. "Shout out to @PureAtlanta for getting the family right"....I'm loving this jogger. 😍😍

29. You will always be my baby😜. #HappyBirthdayReginae #mybaby18

Source:Instagram
29 of 30

30. GC "Gods Child" Red on Red SweatSuit available now at www.MonicaApparel.com ... Take Your Crown wherever you go!! I'm pictured in a Medium... Go to the site now for other options ... cc: @trukernell

This Week’s Celebrity Instagrams (11/26-12/2)

I am a teacher in an inner-city area outside of Chicago and my jaw is hanging open. I am so sad reading this. It is horrible. I feel sorry for the teachers and for the students at that school. I won’t make a long comment stating the obvious, but it is appalling.